Hello again. It has been a long time. Far too long. And for that, I apologize. I have no excuses as to why it has been so long, but I plan on working harder from now on, so I hope you will continue to stick with me for this.

Chapter 7:

It was a surprisingly cool and breezy day today, I thought as I exited the inn and headed towards Grandpa's blacksmith. It's sad, isn't it? I train every day for Grandpa out here in the boonies, and he doesn't even let me live with him. I have to live at the inn. Of course, I'm not saying I'd want to live in that tiny, one bedroom place with him. It just seems silly to drag your grandson to somewhere he's only been a few times before for brief family visits and make him live at the local inn with a bunch of strangers. I don't' know. Maybe I just have old fashioned family values or something.

I shivered. Goddess, isn't this supposed to be summer? Why is it cold? …Maybe I should've checked the forecast before leaving… and grabbed my jacket. Upon reaching the blacksmith's, I opened the door and walked in.

"Gray! There you are!" Grandpa bellowed as soon as I stepped inside. "Hurry up and get inside, boy, we have work to do!"

"Yeah, yeah…" I said as I closed the door behind me. He always greeted me like that.

"Hi, Gray," someone said from beside me. It was Mary.

"Oh, hey Mary," I said to her. What a surprise, she doesn't really come here often.

"How have you been?" she asked me, displaying the kind of common courtesy my grandpa obviously lacked.

"Um… okay, I guess," I probably shouldn't tell her how bummed I was that Claire hadn't been coming around the past few days. It's like she's been avoiding me lately… ever since that whole "curse" incident. I didn't make her mad, did I? Goddess, I hope not…

"Gray?" Mary's voice pushed through my mindless train of thought.

"Er… sorry. Kinda zoned out for a second there…"

The shop windows shuddered loudly suddenly, making me jump a little at the sudden noise.

"It seems the storm has moved in already…" Grandpa said plainly, as if disappointed.

"Storm?" I asked dumbly.

"The weather forecast said there would be one," Mary explained. "But… it wasn't supposed to come until later…" She smiled, despite herself. Sucks for her, she has to walk home in that. Though, thinking about it, I'll be walking in it later, too. Damn.

I looked out the window. It was pretty bad… wind howling, blowing the trees all around. It even looked like we'd be getting some rain with it soon, judging by the low, grey clouds that were moving in. I looked to the side, down the road to Claire's farm. I wonder if she's out in this right now? …I hope not.

"Gray!" my grandpa suddenly shouted. "Stop idling in your own little world! I have something for you to do!"

I stepped away from the window, scowling. "What is it?"

He gestured at Mary. "I want you to walk Mary home. Make sure she gets home safe." He smiled her. "A young lady shouldn't be out by herself in this kind of weather."

"Oh!" Mary exclaimed, "Please, I don't want to be a burden, I can go on my own."

"Nonsense!" Grandpa insisted, "Gray would be happy to walk you home. Right, boy?"

"Huh?" my scowl went away. I must have been expecting the worst when he said he had something for me to do. "Yeah, it's no problem," I told Mary, "Let's go."

She smiled. "Thank you very much, sorry to be an inconvenience." She shrugged her coat on and looked at Grandpa. "Thank you too, Saibara."

"It's my pleasure," he replied, "Come back again whenever you have another problem with any of your tools."

I walked outside and held open the door for Mary while she waved to my grandpa. Goddess, it was windy. I was seriously regretting not bringing my coat with me today.

We walked for a few minutes before Mary started talking.

"You didn't bring a coat, Gray?" she asked me, making me regret my decision to not bring it even more.

"Uh… no. I didn't," I replied, and quickly added, "Oh, but it's fine! The weather's not so bad yet." I didn't want to have her start worrying about me.

We continued walking, chatting idly of unimportant things. It wasn't a long walk to her house, and we were soon approaching her home.

Just as Mary was turning to say something to me, she stopped and gestured down the road, "Oh!"

I turned to look, momentarily seeing a flash of bright blonde as someone turned the corner by the Supermarket.

"Wasn't that Miss Claire?"

"Huh? Oh!" I turned my attention back to Mary. I didn't want her to think I was gazing after Claire or anything, cause I wasn't. At all. Nope. "Uh… I guess so, yeah." I replied, trying to sound uninterested.

"I hope she's alright in this weather."

"Yeah, me too," I turned to look back at the corner she had been at, almost thinking that she might be there again. But of course I wouldn't be so lucky.

"Well," Mary interrupted my thoughts, a polite smile on her face, "Thank you again for taking the time to walk me home. Be careful on your way back."

"Don't mention it, it was nothing," I replied, turning to head back down the road. Maybe, I thought, if I'm lucky I'll bump into Claire on the way back.

Nah, I'm never that lucky.